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COPYRIGHT PHOTO BY KtSER BROS 



A HILL VAGABOND 

Jnakin' wood down the mount ins, 

Fisnin' the little streams; 
JmoKtn my ^i^e in the twilight, 

An areamin over old dreams; 

Breathin' the hreath o' the cool snows, 

Sniffin' the scent o' the ^ine; 
vVatchin the hurryin' river. 
An hearin' the coyotes whine. 

This IS life in the mount ins. 

Summer an' winter an fall. 
Up to the rainy springtime, 

vvhen the birds begin to call. 

1 hen I fix my rod and tackle, 

I read, I smoke an' I sing, 
(jlad like the birds to he livin — 

Ljvin the life of a king I 

— Louise Paley in The Saturday Evening Post. 



^\ 



Copyright, 11110, 
Bv O. P. Barnes 



<OCI.A265971 



L 




TO JOHN GILL 



IN WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP I HAVE PASSED MANY DELIGHTFUL 

DAYS ALONG THE STREAMS AND IN THE WOODS; (JUIET 

ENJOYABLE EVENINGS WATCHING THE ALPENGLOW 

ILLUMINATE THE SNOW-CAPPED MOUNTAINS; 

AND STORMY NIGHTS BESIDE THE SEA 




# 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

GOOD FISHING! A FOREWORD - 

IN THE DIM. RED DAWN . - . . 

THE TROUT— NATIVE AND PLANTED 

LETS GO A- FISHING! . . . . 

A CHAPTER ON TROUT FLIES - 

GRIZZLY LAKE AND LAKE ROSE 

A MORNING ON IRON CREEK - 

AN AFTERNOON ON THE FIREHOLE - 

TRAILS FROM YANCEYS AND OTHER TRAILS 




GOOD FISHING! 

This little writing has to do with the streams and the trout therein of that portion of our country extending 
southward from the southern boundary of Montana to the Teton mountains, and eastward from the eastern 
boundary of Idaho to the Absaroka range. Lying on both sides of the continental divide, its surface is veined 
by the courses of a multitude of streams flowing either to the Pacific Ocean or to the Gulf of Mexico, while 
from the southern rim of this realm of wonders the waters reach the Gulf of California through the mighty 
canyons carved by the Colorado. 

This rcijion has abundant attractions for seekers of outdoor pleasures, and for none more than for the 
angler. Here, "within a space about seventy miles square, nature has placed a bewildering diversity of 
rivers, mountains, lakes, canyons, geysers and ivaterfaUs not found elsewhere in the world. Fortunately, 
Congress early reserved the greater part of this domain as a public pleasure ground. Under the wise admin- 
istration of government officials the natural beauties are protected and made accessible by superb roads. The 
streams also, many of which were barren of fish, have, by successful plantings and intelligent protection, become 
all that the sportsman can wish. The angler who wanders through the woods in almost any direction will 
scarcely fail to find some picturesque lake or swift-flowing stream where the best of sport inay be had with the 
rod. 

G 



Several years aqo I made my first visit to this country, and it has been my privilege to return thither 
annually on fishing excursions of varying duration. These outings have been so enjoyable and have yielded 
so much pleasure at the time and afterwards, that I should like to sound the angler's pack-cry, "Good Fishing!" 
loudly enough to lead others to go also. 

The photoqraphs from which the illustrations were made, except where due credit is given to others, 
were taken with a small hand camera which has hung at my belt in crossing mountains and wading streams, 
and are mainly of such scenes as one comes upon in out-of-the-way places while following that "most 
virtuous pastime" of fly-casting. 

THE AUTHOR. 





THE DIM. RED DAWN 



IN THE DIM, RED DAWN 




Photo hy Hugh M. Smith 
A. heading Saljnon 



«M«[|| EFORE exercising the right of eminent domain over these 
HJj^L waters, it may be profitable to say a word in explanation of 
^T SB ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ hardly more than a score of years ago many 
WttlW of these beautiful lakes and streams were absolutely with- 
out fish life. This will aid us in understanding what the 
government has done and is still doing to create an ideal 
paradise for the angler among these mountains and plateaus. 
There was a time, and this too in comparatively recent 
geological eras, when the waters of that region now under 
consideration abounded with fish of many species. The clumsy 
catfish floundered along the shallows and reedy bayous in company 
with the solemn red-horse and a long line of other fishes of present and 
past generations. The lordly salmon found ideal spawning grounds 
in the gravelly beds of the streams draining to the westward, and 
doubtless came hither annually in great numbers. It may be that 
the habit of the Columbia river salmon to return yearly from the 
Pacific and ascend that stream was bred into the species during the 
days when its waters ran in an uninterrupted channel from source 
to sea. It is true that elsewhere salmon manifest this anadromous 



impulse in as marked a degree as in the Columbia and its tributaries, yet, the conclusion that these 
heroic pilgrimages are habit resulting from similar movements, accidental at first, but extending over 
countless years, is natural, and probably correct. When one sees these noble fish congested b>- thou- 
sands at the foot of some waterfall up which not one in a hundred is able to leap, or observes them 
ascending the brooks in the distant mountains where there is not sufficient water to cover them, 
gasping, bleeding, dying, but pushing upward with their last breath, the figure of the crusaders in 
quest of an ancient patrimony arises in the mind, so strong is the simile and so active is >our s\-mpathy 
with the fish. 

In those distant days the altitude of this region was not great, nor was the ocean as remote from 
its borders as now. The forces which already had lifted considerable^ 
areas above the sea and fashioned them into an embryo con- 
tinent were still at work. The earth-shell, yet soft and 
plastic, was not strong enough to resist the double strain 
caused by its cooling, shrinking outer crust and the 
expanding, molten interior. Volcanic eruptions, mag- 
nificent in extent, resulted and continued at intervals 
throughout the Pliocene period. These eruptions were 
accompanied by prodigious outpours of lava that 
altered the topography of the entire mountain section. ' 
Nowhere else in all creation has such an amount of 
matter been forced up from the interior of the earth to' 
flow in red-hot rivers to the distant seas as in the western^ 
part of the United States. What a panorama of flame it 
was, and what a sublime impression it must have made on^ 
the minds of the primeval men who witnessed it from afar as 

Mammoth Hot Springs 




they paddled their canoes over the troubled waters 
that reflected the red-Htten heavens beneath them! 
Is it remarkable that the geyser region of the Park 
is a place of evil repute among the savages and a 
thing to be passed by on the other side, even to 
the present day? 

When the elemental forces subsided the waters 
were Ashless, and all aquatic life had been de- 
stroyed in the creation of the glories of the Park 
and its surroundings. Streams that once had their 
origins in sluggish, lily-laden lagoons, now took 
their sources from the lofty continental plateaus. 
In reaching the lower levels these streams, in 
most instances, fell over cataracts so high as to be 
impassable to fish, thus precluding their being re- 
^^^^ ^ stocked by natural processes. From this cause the 

etai from Jupiter errace uppcr Gardiner, thc Gibbou and the Firehole rivers 

and their tributaries — streams oftenest seen by the tourist — were found to contain no trout when man 
entered upon the scene. From a sportsman's viewpoint the troutless condition of the very choicest 
waters was fortunate, as it left them free for the planting of such varieties as are best adapted to the 
food and character of each stream. 

The blob or miller's thumb existed in the Gibbon river, and perhaps in other streams, above thc 
falls. Its presence in such places is due to its ability to ascend verv precipitous water courses by means 
of the filamentous algae which usually border such torrents. I once discovered specimens of tliis odd 
fish in the algous growth covering the rocky face of the falls of the Des Chutes river, at Tumwater, in the 

11 




state of Washington, and there is Httle doubt that they 
do ascend nearly vertical walls where the conditions are 
favorable. 

The presence of the red-throat trout of the Snake 
river in the head waters of the Missouri is easilv explained 
by the imperfect character of the water-shed between the 
Snake and Yellowstone rivers. Atlantic Creek, tributary 
to the Yellowstone, and Pacific Creek, tributary to the 
Snake, both rise in the same marshy meadow on the 
continental divide. From this it is argued that, during 
the sudden melting of heavy snows in early times, it was 
possible for specimens to cross from one side to the other, 
and it is claimed that an interchange of individuals might 
occur by this route at the present day.* Certain it is that 
these courageous fish exhibit the same disregard for their 
lives that is spoken of previously as characteristic of their 
congeners, the salmon. Trout are frequently found Iving 
dead on the grass of a pasture or meadow where they 
were stranded the night previous in an attempt to explore 

*NoTK — "As already stated, the trout of Yellowstone Lake certainly 
came into the Missouri basin by way of Two-Ocean Pass from the Upper 
Snake River basin. One of the present writers has caught them in the 
very act of going over Two-Ocean Pass from Pacific into Atlantic drainage. 
The trout of the two sides of the pass cannot be separated, and constitute 
a, single species." 

Jordan & Evermann. 




Tumwater FaVs 



a rivulet caused by a passing shower. The mortahty among fish of this species in irrigated districts is 
alarming. At each opening of the sluice gates they go out with the current and perish in the fields. 
Unless there is a more rigid enforcement of the law requiring that the opening into the ditches be 
screened, trout must soon disappear from the irrigated sections. 

The supposition that these fish have crossed the continental divide, as it were, overland, serves the 
double purpose of explaining the presence of the trout, and the absence of the chub, sucker and white- 
fish of the Snake River from Yellowstone Lake. The latter are feeble fish at best, and generally display 
a preference for the quiet waters of the deeper pools where they feed near the bottom and with little 
exertion. Neither the chub, sucker nor white-fish possesses enough hardihood to undertake so pre- 
carious a journey nor sufiicient vitalitv to survive it. 







CM. 



13 



THE TROUT— NATIVE AND PLANTED 




A Place to he 
Rememhered 



O MANY people a trout is merely a trout, with no distinction 
as to variety or origin; and some there he who know him 
only as a fish, to be eaten without grace and with much 
gossip. Again, there are those who have written at great 
length of this and that species and sub-species, with many 
words and nice distinctions relative to vomerine teeth, branch- 
iostegal rays and other anatomical differences. I would not lead 
you, even if your patience permitted, along the tedious path of 
the scientist, but will follow the middle path and note onlv such 
dilTerences in the members of this interesting family as may be 
apparent to the unpracticed eye and by which the novice may 
distinguish between the varieties that come to his creel. 

In a letter to Doctor David Starr Jordan, in September, 
1SS9, Hon. Marshall McDonald, then U. S. Commissioner of 
Fish and Fisheries, wrote, "I have proposed to undertake 
to stock these waters with different species of Salmonidae, 
reserving a distinct river basin for each." Everv one 
will commend the wisdom of the original intent as it ex- 
isted in the mind of Mr. McDonald. It implied that a 




^""^mm 



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willow Park Cam^ 



careful study would be made of the waters of each basin to 
determine the volume and character of the current, its tempera- 
ture, the depth to which it froze during the sub-arctic winters, 
and the kinds and quantities of fish-food found in each. With 
this data well established, and knowing, as fish culturists have 
for centuries, what conditions are favorable to the most desir- 
able kinds of trout, there was a field for experimentation and 
improvement probably not existing elsewhere. 

The commission began its labors in ISSO, and the record for 
that year shows among other plants, the placing of a 
quantity of Loch Leven trout in the Firehole above the 
Kepler Cascade. The year following nearly ten thousand 

German trout fry were planted in Nez Perce Creek, the principal tributary of the Firehole. Either 

the agents of the commission authorized to make these plants 

were ignorant of the purpose of the Commissioner at Wash- 
ington, or they did not know with what im.munity fish will 

pass over the highest falls. Whatever the reason for this 

error, the die is cast, and the only streams that have a single 

distinct variety are the upper Gardiner and its tributaries, 

where the eastern brook trout has the field, or rather the 

waters, to himself. The first attempt to stock any stream 

was a transfer of the native trout of another stream to Lava 

Creek above the falls. I mention this because the presence 

of the native trout in this locality has led some to believe 

that they were there from the first, and thus constituted an 

15 Klahowya 




exception to the rule that no trout 
were found in streams above vertical 
waterfalls. 

Many are confused by the variety 
of names ajiplied to the native trout 
of the Yellowstone, Salnw Icwisi.. 
Red-throat trout, cut-throat trout, 




On the Trail to Grizzly Lake 

black-spotted trout, mountain trout. 
Rocky Mountain trout, salmon trout, 
and a host of other less generallv 
known local names have been applied 



The Little Firehole 



to him. This is in a measure due to the widely different localities and conditions under which he is found, 
and to the very close resemblance he Ijears to his hrst cousins, Salmo clarkii, of the streams flowing into the 
Pacific from northern Cahfornia to southern Alaska; and to Salmo mykiss oi the Kamchatkan rivers. 
Perhaps the very abundance of this trout has cheapened the estimate in which he is held by some 
anglers, \evcrtheless, he is a royal fish. In streams with raj)id currents he is always a hard fighter, and 
his meat is high-colored and well-flavored. 

The name "black-spotted" trout describes this fish more accurately than any other of his cogno- 
mens. The spots are carbon-black and have none of the vermilion and purple colors that characterize 
the brook trout. The spots are not, however, always uniform in size and number. In some instances 
they are entirely wanting on the anterior part of the body, but their absence is not sufficiently impor- 
tant to constitute a varietal distinction. The red dash under the throat (inner edge of the mandible) 
from which the names "cut-throat" and "red-throat" are derived, is never absent in specimens taken 
here, and, as no other trout of this locality is so marked, it affords the tyro an unfailing means of 
determining the nature of his catch. 

If the eastern brook trout, Salvclinus joiitiualis, couh] read and 
understand but a part of the praises that have been sung of him in 
prose and verse through all the years, what a pampered princeling 
and nuisance he would become! But to his credit, he has gone on 
being the same sensible, shrewd, wary and delightful fish, adapting 
himself to all sorts of mountain streams, lakes, ponds and rivers, and 
always giving the largest returns to the angler in the way of health 
and happiness. The literature concerning the methods employed 
in his capture alone would make a library in which we should find 
the names of soldiers, statesmen and sovereigns, and the great of 
the earth. Aelian, who lived in the second century A. D., describes, 

The Path - '^mi mm f^ ' 

Through the Pines 




in his Dc Aiiiiualiiim Naiuni, how the Mace- 
donians took a fisli witli speckled skin from 
a certain river by means of a hook tied 
about with red wool, to which were fitted 
two feathers from a cock's wattle. More 
than four hundred years prior to this 
Theocritus mentioned a method of fishing 
with a "fallacious bait suspended from a 
rod," but unfortunately failed to tell us how 
the fly was made. If by any chance you 
have never met the brook trout you mav 
know him infallibly from his brethren by 
the dark oli\-c, worm-like lines, technicallv 
called "vermiculations," along the back, as 
he alone displays these heraldic markings. 

Throughout the northwest the brown 
trout, Salnio jario, is generally known as the "von Behr" 

trout, from the name of the German fish-culturist who .sent the first shipment of their eggs to this coun- 
try. This fish may be distinguished at sight by the coarse scales which give his body a dark grayish 
appearance, slightly resembling a mullet, and by the large dull red spots along the lateral line. There 
are also three beautiful red spots on the adipose fin. 

The Loch Leven trout, Salmo levenensis, comes from a lake of that name in southern Scotland. 
He is a canny, uncertain fellow, and nothing like as hardy as we might expect from his origin. In the 
Park waters he has not justified the fame for gameness which he brings from abroad, but there are 
occasions, particularly in the vicinity of the Lone Star geyser, when he comes on with a very pretty 

18 




The l^elan Bridge 




Distant View of 7At. Holmes 

The question as to which is the more beautiful, the rainbow 
or the brook trout, has often been debated with much feehng by 
their respective champions, and will doubtless remain undecided 
so long as both may be taken from clear-flowing brooks, where 
sky and landscape blend with the soul of man to make him as 
supremely happy as it is ever the lot of mortals to become. For 
it is the joy within and around you that supplies a mingled 
pleasure far deeper than that afforded by the mere beauty of the 
fish. You will remember that "Doctor Boteler" said of the 
strawberry, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but 



rush. In general appearance he somewhat resembles 
the von Behr trout, but is a more graceful and finely 
organized fish than the latter. He is the only trout 
of this locality that has no red on his body, and its 
absence is sufficient to distinguish him from all others. 
No one can possibly mistake the rainbow trout, 
Salmo irideus, for any other species. The large, 
brilliant spots with which his silvery-bluish body is 
covered, and that filmy iridescence so admired 
by every one, will identify him anywhere. There 
is, however, a marked difference in the brilliance 
of this iridescence between fish of different ages 
as well as between stream-raised and hatchery- 
bred specimens, and even among fish from the 
upper and lower courses of the same stream. 





Scene on the 

Gibbon River 



doubtless God never did." So, I have said at different times of bolh brook 
and rainbow trout, "Doubtless God could have made a more beautiful fish 
than this, but doubtless God never did." 

During a recent trip through the Rocky Mountains I remained over night 
in a town of considerable mining importance. In the evening I walked up 
the main street passing an almost unbroken line of saloons, gambling 
houses and dance halls, then crossed the street to return, and found 
the same conditions on that side, except that, if possible, the crowds 
were noisier. Just before reaching the hotel, I came upon a small 
restaurant in the window of which was an aciuarium containing a num- 
ber of rainbow trout. One beautiful fish rested quivering, pulsating, resplendent, poised apparently 
in mid air, while the rays from an electric light within were so refracted 
that they formed an aureola about the fish, seemingly transfiguring it. I 
paused long in meditation on the scene, till aroused from my re very by 
the blare of a graphophone from a resort across the street. It sang : 

"Last night as I lay sleeping, there came a dream so fair, 
I stood in old Jeru.salem, beside the temple there; 
I heard the children singing and ever as they sang 
Methought the voice of angels from heaven in answer rang, 

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your gates and sing 

Hosanna in the highest, hosanna to your king." 

I made the sign of Calvary in the vapor on the glass and departed 
into the night pondering of many things. 




20 



Above 
Keller 

Cascade 



LETS GO A-FISHING 



"No man is in perfect condition to enjoy scenery unless Ke 
lias a fly-rod in his hand and a fly-hook in his pocket. 

W^m. C Prime 

ANY who know these mountains and valleys best 

have gained their knowledge with a rod in hand, 

and you will hear these individuals often express 

surprise that a greater number of tourists do not 

avail themselves of the splendid opportunities 

offered for fishing. In no other way can so much 

pleasure be found on the trip, and by no other means 

can you put yourself so immediately and completely 

in sympathy with the spirit of the wilderness. Be- 

les, it is this doing something more than being a 

mere passenger that gives the real interest and zest to 

xistence and that yields the best returns in the 

memories of delightful days. Ihe ladies may be 

taken along without the least inconvenience and 

to the greater enjoyment of the outing. What 

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone if thc good damc has ncvcr sccu au artificial fly! 

Take her anyway, if she will go, and we will make her acquainted with streams where she shall have 

moderate success if she but stand in the shadow of the willows and tickle the surface of the pool with a 

21 




single fl\-. You will feel mutually grateful, each for the presence of the other; and, depend upon it, 
it will make the recollection doubly enjoyable. 

We shall never know and name all the hot springs and geysers of this wonderland, but we may be- 
come accjuainted with the voice of a stream and know it as the speech of a friend. We may establish 
fairly intimate relations with the creatures of the wood and be admitted to some sort of brotherhood with 
them if we conduct ourselves becomingly. The timid grouse will acknowledge the caress of our bamboo 
with an arching of the neck, and the beaver will bring for our inspection his freight of willow or alder, 
and will at times swim confidently between our legs when we are wading in deep water. 

The author of "Little Rivers" draws this pleasing picture of the dehghts of fishing: "You never get 
so close to the birds as when you are wading quietly down a little river, casting your fly deftly under the 
branches for the wary trout, but ever on the lookout for all the pleasant things that nature has to bestow 
upon you. Here you shall come upon the catbird at her morning bath, and hear her sing, in a clump 
of pussy-willows, that low, tender, confidential song which she keeps for the hours of domestic intimacy. 
The spotted sand-piper will run along the stones before 
crying, 'wet-feet, wet-feet!' and bowing and teetering in the 
friendliest manner, as if to show you the best pools 
Surely, if this invitation move you not, no voice ( 
mine will serve to stir your laggard legs. 

One should not, however, go to the wilderness 
and expect it to receive him at once with open arms. 
It was there before him and will remain long after 
he is forgotten. But approach it humbly and its 
asperities will soften and in time become akin to affec- 
tion. As one looks for the first time through the black, 
basaltic archway at the entrance to the Park, the nearby 

22 




The Black Giant Geyser 



1 


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in 


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^J^arh Gateway 



mountains have an air of distance and unfriendliness, nor do 
thev speedily assume a more sympathetic relation toward the 
visitor. A region in which the world's formative forces linger 
ten thousand years after they have disappeared elsewhere will 
make no hasty alliance with strangers. The heavy foot of time 
treads so slowly here that one must come often and with ob- 
servant eye to note the advance from season to season and to 
feel that he has any part or interest in it. 

When we can judge correctly from the height of the up- 
springing vegetation whether the forest fire that blackened 
this hillside raged one year ago or ten; when we have noted 
that the bowl of this terrace, increasing in height by the 
insensible deposit of carbonate of lime from the overflowing 
waters, appears to outstrip from year to year the growth of the 

neighboring cedars; when these and a multitude of kindred phenomena are comprehended, how interested 
we become ! 

Nothing said here is intended to encourage undue familiarity with the wild game. "Shinny on your 
own side," is a good motto with any game, and more than one can testify of sudden and unexpected 
trouble brought on themselves by meddlesorrteness. In following an elk trail through the woods one 
afternoon, I found a pine tree had fallen across the path making a barrier about hip-high. While 
looking about to see whether any elk had gone over the trail since the tree fell, and, if so, whether 
they had leaped the barrier or had passed around it by way of the root or top, a squirrel with a pine 
cone in his teeth, sprang on the butt of the tree and came jauntily along the log. Some twenty feet away 
he spied me, and suddenly his whole manner and bearing changed. He dropped the cone and came on 
with a bow-legged, swaggering air, the very embodiment of insolent proprietorship. The top of my rod 

23 



Photo hy F. J. Haynes 
Bear Cuhs 



extended over the log, and as he came under it I gave him a 
smart switch across the back. Now, there had been noth- 
ing in my previous acquaintance with squirrels to lead me 
to think them other than most timid animals. But the 
slight l)low of the rod-tip transformed this one into a Fury. 
With a peculiar half-bark, half-scream, he leaped at my face 
and slashetl at my neck and ears with his powerful jaws. 
So strong was he that I could not drag him loose when his 
teeth were buried in my coat collar. I finally choked him 
till he loosened his hold and flung him ten feet away. Back 
he came to the attack with the speed of a wild cat. It was 
either retreat for me or death to the squirrel, and I re- 
treated. Never before had I witnessed such an exhibition 
of diabolical malevolence, and, though I have laughed over 
it since, I was too much upset for an hour afterward to 
sec the funny side of the encounter. 

The ways of the wilderness have ever been pleasant 
to my feet, and whether it was taking the ouananiche 
in Canada or the Beardslee trout in the shadow of the 
Olympics, it has all been good. Without detracting from 
the sport afi'orded by an}' other localitv, I honestlv be- 
lieve that, takingintoconsideration climate, comfort, scenerv, 
uid the opportunities for observing wild life, this region has no equal for trout fishing 
I am aware that he who praises the fishing on any stream will ever have two classes 

"Whether vour success shall 







environment, 

under the sun 

of critics — the unthinking and the unsuccessful 



To these I would say, 



be greater or less than mine will depend upon the conditions of weather and stream and on 3'our own 
skill, and none of these do I control." In that splendid book, "Fly-Rods and Fly-Tackle," Mr. Henry 
P. Wells relates an instance in which he and his guide took an angler to a distant lake with the certain 
promise and expectation of fane fishing. After recording the keen disappointment he felt that not a 
single trout would show itself, he says, "Then I vowed a vow, which I commend to the careful considera- 
tion of all anglers, old and new alike — never again, under any circumstances, will I recommend any fish- 
ing locality in terms substantially stronger than these 'At that place I have done so and so; under Hke 
conditions it is believed that you can repeat it.' We are apt to speak of a place and the sport it affords 
as we found it, whereas reflection and 
experience should teach us that it is 
seldom exactly the same, even for two 
successive days." 

There is a large number of fly- 
fishermen in the east who sincerely 
believe that the best sport cannot be 
had in the streams of the Rocky 
Mountains, and this belief has a grain 
of truth when the fishing is confined 
solely to native trout and to streams 
of indifferent interest. But when the 
waters flow through such picturesque 
surroundings as arc found in the 
Yellowstone National Park, when 
from among these waters one may 
select the stream that shall furnish 




Elk In Winter 



Photo hy F". J. Haynes 



the trout he loves most to take, tlie objection is most fully answered. The writer can attest how difficult 
it was to outgrow the conviction that a certain brook of the Alleghanies had no equal, but he now gladly 
concedes that there are streams in the west just as prolific of fish and as pleasant to look upon as the 
one he followed in boyhood. It is proper enough to maintain that: "The fields are greenest where our 
childish feet have strayed," but when we permit a mere sentiment to prevent the fullest enjoyment of 
the later opportunities of hfe, your beautiful sentiment becomes a harmful prejudice. 

When the prophet required Naaman to go down and bathe in the river Jordan, Naaman was exceed- 
ing wroth, and exclaimed, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than any in Israel?" 

The record hath it that Xaaman went and bathed in the 
Jordan, and that his body was healed of its leprosy and 
his mind of its conceit. So, when my angling friend 
from New Brunswick incjuircs whether I have 
fished the W'hpskehegan or have tried the lower 
pools of the Assametaquaghan for salmon, I am 
compelled to answer no. But there comes a 
longing to give him a day's outing on Hell- 
Roaring Creek or to see him a-foul of a five- 
pound von Behr trout amid the steam of the 
Riverside Geyser. The streams of Maine and 
Canada are delightful and possess a charm that 
lingers in the mind like the minor chords of 
almost forgotten music, but they cannot be 
compared with the full-throated torrents of 
the Absarokas. As well liken a fugue with 
flute and cymbals to an oratorio with 
bombardon and skv-rockets! 




Having Eaten and Drunk 



26 




Photo hy 
Biologica) Survey 

VC^ho Hath Seen the Beaver Busied 9 

:','. iH :{: ^ H^ :[; :!::}; ^ :}: H^ Hi :!: :t: 

Whu hath seen the beaver busied? Who hath 

watched the black-tail mating? 
Who hath lain alone to hear the wild-goose cry? 
Who hath worked the chosen water where the 

oiiananiche is waiting. 
Or the sea-trout's jumping-crazy for the fly? 



He must go — go — go — away from here ! 
On the other side the world he's overdue. 
'Send your road is clear before you when the old 
Spring-fret comes o'er you 
And the Red Gods call for you ! 

Do you know the blackened timber — do you know that 
racing stream 
With the raw right-angled log-jam at the end: 
And the bar of sun-warmed shingle where a man may bask 
and dream 
To the click of shod canoe poles round the bend ' 
It is there that we are going with our rods and reels 
and traces, 
To a silent smoky Indian that we know — 
To a couch of new-pulled hemlock with the starlight 
on our faces. 
For the Red Gods call us out and we must go ! 

The Feet of the Young Men^KipHiig. 



27 



A CHAPTER ON TROUT FLIES 



"TKyse ben xij. flyes wytK wKytcK ye sKall 
angle to ye trought and graylling. and dubbe ' 

lyke as ye sball no\v hear me tell. 

Dame Juliana Berners. 

I\E centuries have passed since the dignified 
and devout prioress of St. Albans indited the 
above sentence, and the tribute to the sterling 
good sense therein is that the growing years 
have but added to its authority. A dozen well 
selected varieties of flies, dubbe them how ye 
lyke, are well-nigh sufficient for any locality. 
There may be streams that require a wider range 
of choice, but these are so rare that they may 
safely be considered as exceptional. Not that 
any particular harm has resulted from the un- 
reasonable increase in the number and varieties 
of artificial flies. They amuse and gratify the 
tyro and in no wise disturb the master of the 
art. But an over-plethoric fly book in the 
possession of a stranger will, with the knowing, 
place the angling aljility of the owner under suspicion. Better a thousand -fold, are the single half- 

28 




Water js the J^aster JVlason 



dozen flies the uses and seasons of which are fully understood than a multitude of meaningless creations. 

The angler should strive to attain an intelligent understanding of the principal features of the artificial 
fly and how a change in the form and color of these features afTects the behavior of the fish for which he 
angles. In studying this matter men have gone down in diving suits that they might better see the flv 
as it appeared when presented to the fish, and there is nothing in their reports to encourage extremelv 
fine niceties in fly-dressing. One may know a great deal of artists and their work and yet truly know 
but little of the value of ait itself; or have been a great reader of economics, and yet have little practi- 
cal knowledge of that complex product of society called civilization. So, I had rather possess the knowl- 
edge a dear friend of mine has of Dickens, Shakespeare, and the Bible alone than to be able to discuss 
"literature" in general before clubs and societies. 

Several years of angling experience in tlie far west have convinced the writer that flies of full bodies 
and positive colors are the most killing, and that the palmers are slightly better than the hackles. Of 
the standard patterns of flies the most successful are the coachman, royal coachman, black hackle, 
Parmacheene Belle, with the silver doctor for lake fishing, in the order named. The trout here, with 
the exception of those in Lake Yellowstone, are fairly vigorous fighters, and it is important that your 
tackle should be strong and sure rather than elegant. 

With a view of determining whether it were possible to make a fly that would answer nearly all 
the needs of the mountain fisherman, I began, in 1897, a series of experiments in fly-tying that con- 
tinued over a period of five years. The result is the production of what is widely known in the west as 
the Pitcher flv. As before indicated, this fly did not spring full panoplied into being, but was evolved from 
standard types by gradual modifications. The body is a furnace hackle, tied palmer; tail of barred 
wood-duck feather; wing snow-white, to which is added a blue cheek. The name, "Pitcher," was given 
to it as a compliment to Major John Pitcher, who, as acting superintendent of the Yellowstone National 
Park, has done much to improve the quality of the fishing in these streams. 

From a dozen states anglers have written testifying to the killing qualities of the Pitcher Fly, and 

29 



the extracts following show that its 
success is not confined to any locality 
nor to any single species of trout : 

"The Pitcher flies you gave me have 
aided me in filling my twenty-pound 
basket three times in the last three 
weeks. Have had the best sport this 
season I have ever enjoyed on the 




Coeur d'Alene waters, and I can truth- 
fully say I owe it all to the 
Pitcher fly and its designer." 
H. R. Denny, 

Wallace, Idaho. 



At the Head of the Meadow 



SO 




"One afternoon I had put up my rod and strolled down 
to the river where one of our party was whipping a pool 
of the Big Hole, trying to induce a tish to strike. He said : 
'There's an old villain in there; he wants to strike but can't 
make up his mind to do it.' I said : 'I have a fly that will 
make him strike,' and as I had my book in my pocket I 
handed him a Xo. 8 Pitcher. He made two casts and 
hooked a beautiful trout, that weighed nineteen ounces, 
down. I regard the Pitcher as the best killer in my book." 

J. li. !\IoNROE, Dillon, Montana. 



'Photo hy N. H. Darton 
The Tongue River 



"I determined to follow the stream up into the moun- 
tains, but as I neared the woods at the upper end of the 
meadow I stopped to cast into a long, straight reach of the 
river where the breeze from the ocean was rippling the sur- 
face of the stream. The grassy bank rose steep behind me 
and only a little fringe of wild roses partly concealed me 
from the water. I cast the Pitcher flies you gave me well 
out on the rough water, allowed them to sink a hand -breadth, 
and at the first movement of the line I saw that heart- 
expanding flash of a broad silver side gleaming from the 
clear depths. The trout fastened on savagely, and as he 
was coming my way, I assisted his momentum with all 
the spring of the rod, and he came flying out into the 
clean, fresh grass of the meadow behind me. It was a half- 

31 




another rise. Satisfied that the circus was over, I cHmbed up 
into the meadow and gathered the spoils into my basket. 
Nearly all were brook trout, but two or three silvery salmon trout 
among them had struck cjuite as gamely. I had such a weight 
of fish as I never took before on the Nekanicum in our most 
fortunate fishing." 

'Walking back along the trail, I came again to the long 



talking It Over 

pound speckled brook trout. I did not stop 
to pouch him, but cast again. In a moment 
I was fast to another such, and again I 
sprung him bodily out, glistening like a 
silver ingot, to where his brother lay. In 
my first twelve casts I took ten such fish, 
all from ten to twelve inches long, mostly 
without any playing. I took twenty-two 
fine fish without missing one strike, and 
landed every one safely. I was not an 
hour in taking the lot. Then oddly enough, 
I whipped the water for fifty yards without 




x^eaver Dam and Reservoir 




reach where I had my luck an hour before, 
and cast again to see if there might be 
another fish. Two silver glints shone up 
through the waves in the same instant. 
I struck one of the two fish, though I 
might have had both if I had left the 
flies unmoved the fraction of a second. 
Three times I refused such doublets, for 
I had not changed an inch of tackle, and 
scarcely even looked the casting line over. 
It was no time to allow two good fish to 
go raking that populous pool. How- 
ever I did take chances with one doublet. 
So out of the same lucky spot on my 
return, I took ten more fish each aljout a 
foot long. I brought nearly every one 
flying out as I struck him, and I never 
put such a merciless strain on a rod before. 

I had concluded again that the new tenantry had all l^ccn 
evicted, and was casting 'most extended' trying the powers 
of the rod and reaching, I should say, sixty feet out. As the 
flies came half-way in and I was just about snatching them out 
for a long back cast, the father of the family soared after them 
in a gleaming arc. He missed by not three inches and bored his 
way straight down into the depths of the clear green water. 'My heart went out to him,' as our friend 

33 



Photo hv Join Gill 
That Populous Pool 



Wells said, l)ut coaxing was in vain. I tried them above and below, sinking the flies deeply, or 
dropping them airily upon the waves, but to no purpose. I had the comforting thought that we may 
pick him up when you are here this summer." 

John Gill, Portland, Oregon. 



THE BONNY RED HECKLE 



Away frae the smoke an' the smotlier. 

Away frae the crush o' the thrang! 
Away frae the labour an' pother 

That have fettered our freedom sae lang! 
For the May's i' full bloom i' the hedges 

And the laverock's aloft i' the blue, 
An' the south wind sings low i' the sedges. 

By haughs that are silvery wi' dew. 
Up, angler, off wi' each shackle! 

Up, gad and gaff, and awa'! 
Cry 'Hurrah for the canny red heckle, 

The heckle that tackled them a' ! ' 



Then back to the smoke and the smother, 

The uproar and crush o' the thrang; 
An' back to the labour and pother. 

But happy and hearty and Strang. 
Wi' a braw light o' mountain and muirland, 

Outflashing frae forehead and e'e, 
Wi' a blessing flung back to the norland, 

An' a thousand, dear Cocjuet, to thee! 
As again we resume the old shackle, 

Our gad an' our gaff stowed awa', 
An' — goodbye to the canny 'red heckle,' 

The heckle that tackled them a' !' 

-From "The Lay of the Lea." By Thomas Wcstwood. 



Note— I am inclobted to Mr.s. Mary Orvis Marbury, author of "Favorite Flies," for copies of "Hey for Coquet, 
'Farewell to Coquet," from the former of which the foregoing are extracts. 

34 



and 



GRIZZLY LAKE AND LAKE ROSE 




Grizzly Lake 

fishing is at the southern end, near where Straight Creek enters the lake 

35 



"And best of all. througli twilight's calm 
The hermit-thrush repeats his psalm. 

Henry \^an Dyke 



RIZZLY LAKH Hes scchidcd among the 
timbered hills, four miles south — south and 
. west — from Willow Park. The long nar- 
row bed of the lake was furrowed by a 
glacier that once debouched here from 
the mountains to the west, and through 
the gravel and detritus that surround it 
the melting snows and rain are filtered 
till the water is fit for the Olympian 
deities. No more profitable place can be 
found for the angler to visit. The lake swarms 
with brook trout weighing from one to 
five pounds, and in the ice-cold water 
which is supplied with an abundance of 
insect and crustacean food the fish are in 
prime condition after July first. The best 
A little investigation will 



discover close at hand, several large springs that 
flow into the lake at this point, and here the trout 
congregate after the spawning season. 

In order to reach this location conveniently, I, 
carlv in 1902, constructed a light raft of dry pine 
logs, about six by ten feet, well spiked together 
with drift bolts; since which time other parties 
have added a substantial row boat. Both the boat 
and the raft may be found at the lower end of the 
lake, just where the trail brings you to it. The 
canvas boat that was set up on the lake earlier, 
was destroyed the first winter by bears, but the 
boat and raft now there will prolxibly hold their 
own against the Ix-asts of the field for some time. 
If you use either of them you will, of course, re- 
turn it to the outlet of the lake, that he who comctli 
after may also enjoy. 
^"^^ ^""^ The route to Grizzly Lake follows very closely the Bannock 

Indian trail from the point where Straight Creek enters the meadows of Willow Park to the outlet of 
the lake. The trail itself is interesting. It was the great Indian thoroughfare between Idaho and the 
Big Horn Basin in Wyoming, and was doubtless an ancient one at the time the Romans dominated 
Britain. How plainly the record tells you that it was made by an aboriginal people. Up hill and 
down hill, across marsh or meadow, it is always a single trail, trodden into furrow-like distinctness 
t)y moccasined feet. Nowhere does it permit the going abreast of the beasts of draft or burden. At 
no place does it suggest the side-by-side travel of the white man for companionship's sake, nor the 




hand -in-hand converse of mother and 
child, lover and maid. Ease your 
pony a moment here and dream. 
Here comes the silent procession on 
its way to barter in the land of the 
stranger, and here again it will return 
in the autumn, as it iias done for a 
thousand years. In the van are the 
blanketed braves, brimful of in-toe- 
ing, painful dignity. Behind these 
follow the ponies drawing the lodge- 
poles and camp outfit, and then come 
the squaws and the children. Just 
there is a bend in the trail and tlic 
lodge-poles have abraded the tree in 
the angle till it is worn half through. 
A little further on, in an open glade, 
they camped for the night. Decades 
have come and gone since the last 
Indian party passed this way, yet a cycle hence the trail will be distinct at iiicervals. 

By turning to the west at Winter Creek and passing over the sharp hills that border that stream 
you will come, at the end of a nine-mile journey, to Lake Rose. The way is upward through groves of 
pine, thickets of aspen, and steep open glades surrounded by silver fir trees that would be the delight 
of a landscape gardener if he could cause them to grow in our city parks as thev do here. Elk 
are everywhere. We ride through and around bands of them, male, female, and odd-shapen calves with 




The Btghorn Ranee 



Photo hy JV. H. Darton 



beauty, and freedom and serenity of 
it are irresistible, and you compre- 
hend for the first time the spirit of 
the Argonauts of '49 and the nobility 
of the psean they chanted to express 
their exalted brotherhood : 
"The days of old. 
The days of gold, 
The days of '49." 




Gorge of the Firehole River 

wobbly legs and luminous, questioning 
eyes. As you pause now and then to 
contemplate some new view of the 
wilderness unfolding before you, the 



38 



A Wooded hlet 



Suddenly the ground slopes away before us and Lake Rose lies at our feet, like an amethyst in a chalice 
of jade-green onyx. The surroundings arc picturesque. The mountains descend abruptly to the water's 
edge and the snow never quite disappears from its banks in the longest summer. Here in June mav 
be seen that incredible thing, the wild strawberry blossoming bravely above the slush-snow that still 



hides the plant below, and the bitter-root 
bank. A small stream enters the lake at 
most abundant. They rise eagerly to 
breaking at once, any one of which is 
more than a score of anglers have ever 
of caution may for this reason be 
the water retards the spawning sea- 
should not be taken here earlier 
nature has given to every true 
when he has enough, and as this 
restraint, he should feel that its 
the sportsman's limit will be 




putting forth buds in the lee of a snow 

the northwest, and here the trout are 

the silver doctor fly, a half dozen often 

a weight for a rod. Probably not 

cast a fly from this point, and a word 

pardoned. The low temperature of 

son till midsummer, consequently trout 

than the third week of July. Again, 

sportsman the good sense to stop 

unwritten law is practically his only 

observance is in safe hands and that 

strictlv observed. 



A MORNING ON IRON CREEK 




»HKN the snows have disappeared from the 
valleys and lower hills, and the streams have 
fallen to the level of their banks and their 
waters have lost the brown stain filtered from 
decaying leaves, and have resumed the chattv, 
confidential tones of summer, then is the time 
angle for the brown trout. If you would 
know the exact hour, listen for the brigadier 
bird as he sings morning and evening from a 
tall tree at the mouth of Iron Creek. When 
you hear his lonely wood -note, joint your 
rod and take the path through the lodge- 
pole pines that brings you to the creek about 
three hundred yards above its confluence 
with the river. The lush grass of the meadow 
is ankle-deep with back water from the main 
stream, and Iron Creek and the Little Firehole lie level-lipped and currentless. As you look quietlv on 
from the shade of a tree, the water breaks into circles in a dozen places, and just at the edge of a bank 
where the sod overhangs the stream there is a mighty splash which is repeated several times. Move 

40 



The Boy and the von Behr 



Stealthily drop the lly just over the 
edge of the bank, as though some wit- 
less insect had lost his hold above and 
fallen! — Right Honorable Dean of the 
Guild, I read the other day an article 
in which you stated that the brown 
trout never leaps on a slack line. 




softly, for the ground is spongy and 
vibrates under a heavy tread suffi- 
cientlv to warn the fish for many yards, 
then the stream becomes suddenly silent 
and you will wait long for the trout to resume 
their feeding. 



41 



A-hng Iron Creek 




Surely you are right, and this is not a trout after 
all, but a flying fish, for he went down stream in 
three mighty and unexpected leaps that wrecked 
your theory and the top joint of the rod before 
the line could be retrieved. Then the fly comes 
limply home and nothing remains of the sproat 
hook but the shank. 

These things happened to a friend in less 
time than is taken in the telling. When he 
had recovered from the shock he remarked, 
smilingly, "That wasn't half bad for a Dutch- 
man, now, was it?" As he is a sensible fellow 
and has no "tendency toward eft'eminate 
attenuation" in tackle, he graciously accepted 
and used the proffered cast of Pitcher flies 
tied on number six O'Shaughnessy hooks. 
Having ventured this much concerning what the writer considers proper tackle, he would like to go 
further and record here his disapproval of the individual who turns up his nose at any rod of over five 
ounces in weight, and who tells you with an air from which vou are expected to infer much, that fly fishing 
is really the only honorable and gentlemanly manner of taking trout. In the language of one who was a 
master of concise and forceful phrase, "This is one of the deplorable fishing afi'ectations and pretences 
which the rank and file of the fraternity ought openly to expose and repudiate. Our irritation is greatly 
increased when we recall the fact that every one of these super-refined fly -casting dictators, when he fails 
to allure trout by his most scientific casts, will chase grasshoppers to the point of profuse perspiration, 
and turn over logs and stones with feverish anxiety in quest of worms and grubs, if haply he can with 



Divinity and Infinity 



42 



these save himself from empty-handedness."* Fly fishing as a reereation justifies all good that has been 
written of it, but it is a tell-tale sport that infallibly informs your associates what manner of being you 
are. It is self-purifying like the limpid mountain stream its followers love, and no wrong-minded in- 
dividual nor set of individuals can ever pollute it. It is too cosmopolitan a pleasure to belong to the 
exclusive, and too robust in sentiment to be confined to gossamer gut leaders and midge hooks. 

Much, in fact everj'thing, of your success in taking fish in Iron Creek depends on the time of your 
visit. For three hundred, thirty days of the year it is profitless water. Then come the days when the 
German trout begin their annual auswanderung. No one need be told that these trout do not live in 
this creek throughout the year. For trout are brook-wise or river-wise according as they have been 
reared, and the habits, attitudes and behavior of the one are as different from the other as arc those 
of the boys and girls reared in the country from the city-bred. If one of these river-bred fish breaks 
from the hook here he does not immediately bore up stream into deep water and disappear beneath a 
sheltering log, bank or submerged tree-top as one would having a claim on these waters, but heading 
down-stream, he stays not for brake and he stops not for stone till the river is reached. In his head- 
long haste to escape he reminds one of a country boy going for a doctor. 

It is one of the unexplained phenomena of trout life and habit, why these fish leap as they do here 
at this season, when hooked. In no other stream and at no other 
time have I known them to exhibit this quality. It is one of those 
problems of trout activity for which apparently no reason can be 
given further than the one which is said to control the fair sex ; 

"When she will she will, 
And you may depend on't; 
When she won't she won't, 
And that's an end on't." 



*Hon. Grover Clevehiiul in The Satiirdiiy Evening Post. 





"I'm wrapped up in my plaid, and lyin' a' my 
length on a bit green platform, fit for the fairies' feet, 
wi' a craig hangin' ower me a thousand feet high, 
yet bright and balmy a' the way up wi' flowers and 
i)riars,and broom and birks, and mosses maist beau- 
tiful to behold wi' half shut e'e, and through aneath 
ane's arm guardin' the face frae the cloudless sun- 
shine ; and perhaps a bit bonny butterfly is resting wi' 
faulded wings on a gowan, no a yard frae your 
cheek; and noo waukening out o' a simmer dream 
floats awa' in its wavering beauty, but, as if unwill- 
ing to leave its place of mid-day sleep, comin' back 
and back, and roun' and roun' on this side and 
that side, and ettlin in its capricious happiness to 
fasten again on some brighter floweret, till the same 
breath o' wund that lifts up your hair so refresh- 
ingly catches the airy voyager and wafts her away 
into some other nook of her ephemeral paradise." 

Christopher North. 



^vv 



AN AFTERNOON ON THE FIREHOLE 




I- HE Fire hole is a companionable river. Notwithstanding 
its forbidding name, it is pre-eminently a stream for 
the angler, and always does its best to put him at his ease. 
Like some hospitable manorial lord, it comes straight 
down the highway for a league to greet the stranger and 
to offer him the freedom of its estate. Kvery fisherman 
who goes much alone along streams will unconsciously 
associate certain human attributes with the qualities 
of the waters he fishes. It may be a quiet charm 
that lulls to rest, or a bold current that challenges 
his endurance and caution. Between these ex- 
tremes there is all that infinite range of moods and 
fancies which find their counterpart in the emotions. 
The Firehole possesses many of these qualities in a 
high degree. It can be broad, sunny and genial, or 
whisper with a scarcely audible lisp over languid, trail- 
ing beds of conferva; and anon, lead you with tumultuous voice between rocky walls where a misstep 
would be disastrous. The unfortunate person who travels in its company for the time required to 
make the tour of the Park and remains indifferent to all phases of its many-sidedness, should turn 

45 



^H-^ 



Fj'rst \^iew of the Firehole 



During the restful period following 
the noon-hour, when there is a truce 
between fisherman and fish, we lie in 
the shadow of the pines and read "Our 
Lady's Tumbler," till, in the drowsy 
mind fancy plays an interlude with 
fact. The ripple of the distant stream 




Cascades of the Madison 

back. Nature will have no communion 
with him, nor will he gain her little secrets 
and confidences : 



'They're just beyond the skyline 
Howe'er so far you cruise." 



Below the Cascades 



becomes the patter of priestly feet down dim corridors, and the whisper of the pines the rustle of sacer- 
dotal robes. Through half-shut Hds we see the clouds drift across the slopes of a distant mountain, 
double as it were, cloud and snow bank vying with each other in whiteness. 

Neither the companionship of man nor that of a boisterous stream will accord with our present mood. 
So, with rod in hand, we ford the stream above the island and lie down amid the wild flowers in the shadow 
of the western hill. For wild flowers, like patriotism, seemingly reach their highest perfection amid 
conditions^ of soil and climate that are apparently most uncongenial. Here almost in reach of hand, 
are a variety and profusion of flowers rarely found in the most favored spots ; colum- 
bines, gentians, forget-me-nots, asters and larkspurs, are all in bloom at the same 
moment, for the summer is short and nature has trained them to thrust forth 
their leaves beneath the very heel of winter and to bear bud, flower, and fruit 
within the compass of fifty days. 

I stronglv urge everv tourist, angling or otherwise, to carry with him both 
a camera and a herbarium. With these he may preserve invaluable records 
of his outing; one to remind him of the lavish panorama of beauty of moun- 
tain, lake and waterfall ; the other to hold within its leaves the delicately 
colored flowers that delight the senses. A great deal is said about the cheap 
tourist nowadays, with the emphasis so placed on the word "cheap" as 
to create a wrong impression. With the manner of your travel, whether 
in Pullman cars, Concord coaches, buck-board wagons, or on foot, this 
adjective has nothing to do. It docs, however, describe pretty accurately 
a quality of mind too often found among visitors to such places— a mind 
that looks only to the present and passing events, and that between 
intervals of gevser-chasing, is busied with inconsequential gabble, 
with no thought of selecting the abiding, permanent things as 
treasures for the storehouse of memory. 




1 



Undine Falls 



What fisherman is there who has not in his fly-book a dozen or more flies that are perennial reminders 
of great piscatorial events? And what angler is there who does not love to go over them at times, one 
by one, and recall the incidents surrounding the history of each? 



We fondle the Hies in our fancy, 
Selecting a cast that will kill, 
Then wait till a breeze from the canyon 
Has rimpled the water so still; — 
Teal, and Fern, and Beaver, 
Coachman, and Caddis, and Herl, — 
And dream that the king of the river 
Lies under the foam of that swirl. 



A joust of hardiest conflict 
With knight in times of eld 

Would bring a lesser pleasure 

Than each of these victories held. 
Rapids, and foam, and smother, 

Lunge, and thrust, and leap, — 

And to know that the barbed feather 

Is fastened sure and deep. 



There's a feather from far Tioga, 

And one from the Nepigon, 
And one from the upper Klamath 
That tell of battles won — 

Palmer, and Hackle, and Alder, 
Claret, and Polka, and Brown, — 
Each one a treasured memento 
Of days that have come and gone. 



Abbey, and Chantry, and Quaker, 

Dorset and Canada, 
Premier, Hare's Ear, and Hawthorne, 

Brown Ant, and Yellow May, 

Jungle-Cock, Pheasant, and Triumph, 
Romeyn, and Montreal, 
Are names that will ever linger 
In the sunlight of Memory Hall. 



The whole field of angling literature contains nothing more exquisite than the following description 
of the last days of Christopher North, as written by his daughter: 



48 



"It was an affecting sight to see him busy, nay, quite absorbed with the fishing tackle scattered 
about the bed, propped up with pihows — his noble head, yet glorious with its flowing locks, carefully 
combed by attentive hands, and falling on each side of his unfadcd face. How neatly he picked out each 
elegantly dressed fly from its little bunch, drawing it out with trembling hand along the white coverlet, 
and then replacing it in his pocket-book, he would tell ever and anon of the streams he used to fish in 
of old." 

^ He ^ ^ ^ ik ^k ^z ^z ^ ^ ^^ ^ lie ^ ^ Hz 

By four o'clock the stream is hidden from the sun and the shadow of the wooded sunnnit at your 
back has crossed the roadway and is climbing the heights be\-ond. As if moved by some signal unheard 
by the listener, the trout begin to feed all along the sur- 
face of the water. Leap follows or accompanies leap as 
far as the eye can discern up stream, and down stream 
to where the water breaks to the downpull of the gorge 
below. Select a clear space for your back-cast, wait till a 
cloud obscures the sun. * * * * f j^g trout took the 
fly from below and with a momentum that carried him 
full-length into the air. But there was no turning of the 
body in the arc that artists love to picture. He dropped 
straight down as he arose and the waters closed over him 
with a "plop" which you learn afterward is characteristic 
of the rise and strike of the German trout. All this may 
not be observed at first, for if he is one of the big fellows, 
he will cut out some busy-work for you to prevent his go- 
ing under the top of that submerged tree which you had 
not noticed before. As it was, you brought him clear bv 




49 



Picturesque Rochs in River 









HHHI 














v< 


'i 








'S.^ ^jti 


ill' a 


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a scant hand's breadth, only to have him 
dive for another similar one with greater 
energy. 

W'eh, it's the same old story over again, 
but one that never becomes altogether te- 
dious to the angler. And the profitable part 
of this tale is that it may be re-enacted here 
on any summer afternoon. 

Some day a canoe will float down the 
river and land on the gravelly beach at the 
upper end of that delectable island, just 
where the trees are mirrored in the water 
so picturesquely. Then a tent will be set up 
and two shall possess that island for a 
whole, happy week. If you are coming by 

^_ that road then, give the "Hallo" of the 

" , fellow craft and you shall have a loaf and 

as many fish as yt)u like, and be sent on your way as becomes a man and brother. 



'That Delectable Island' 



50 



TRAILS FROM YAKCEY'S AND OTHER TRAILS 




HEN "Uncle" John Yancey, peace to his 
ashes, selected the site for his home and 
l:)uilt his cabin under the shelter of the 
mountain at the north end of Pleasant 
Valley, he displayed that capacity to dis- 
cover and appropriate the best things of the 
earth which is characteristic of American 
pioneers. Here game was abundant and every- 
thing that a remote, mountainous country 
could supply to the frontiersman was at 
hand. A stream of purest water ran 
by the door, and the open, grassy 
meadows were ample for the supply 
^"""y'* of hay and pasturage. The scenery 

is delightful, varied and picturesque. Xo other locality in the Park is comparable with it as a place of 
abode, and there is no pleasantcr place in which to spend a week than at "Yancey's." 

The government has recently completed a road from the canyon of the Yellowstone, over Mt. Wash- 
burn, down the vallev near Yancey's, and reaching Mammoth Hot Springs by way of Lava Creek. This 
has added another day to the itinerary of the Park as planned by the transportation companies, and one 

51 



which for scenic interest surpasses any other day of the tour. A mere category of the places of interest 
that may be seen in this region would be lengthv. 

The lower canyon of the Yellowstone with its overhanging walls five hundred feet high, with pillars 
of columnar basalt reaching more than half-wav from base to summit, the petrified trees, loftv cliffs, 
and romantic waterfalls, will delight and charm the visitor. 

The angler will find the waters of this region as abundantly supplied with trout as any area of like 
extent anywhere. No amount of fishing will ever exhaust 
the "Big Eddy" of the Yellowstone, and it is worth a day's 
journey to witness the swirl and sweep of the water after it 
emerges from the confining, vertical walls. The velocity of 
the current at this point is very great, and surely, during a 
flood, attains a speed of sixteen or more miles an hour. In 
the eddy itself the trout rise indilTerently to the fly, but 
will come to the red-legged grasshopper as long as the 
supply lasts. 

Strange to say, they will not take the grasshopper on the 
surface of the water. Two bright faced boys who had 
climbed down into the canyon watched me whip the pool in 
every direction for a quarter of an hour without taking a 
single trout. Satisfied that something was wrong, I fastened 
a good sized Rangeley sinker to the leader about a foot 
above the hook and pitched the grasshopper into the 
buffeting currents. An hour later we carried back to 
camp twenty-five trout which, placed endwise, head 
to tail, measured twenty-five feet on a tape line. 

52 ' 'V^y^^nKyi, "Swirl and Sweep 

of the Water' 




This use of a sinker under the circumstances was not a great discovery, but it speUed the difference 
between success and failure at the time. So I have been glad at most times to learn b>' experience and 
from others the little things that help make a better day's angling. 

)nce when I knew more about trout fishing than I have ever convinced my- 
self that I knew since, I visited a famous stream in a wilderness new and 
unknown to me, fully resolved to show the natives how to do things. 
Near the end of the third day of almost fruitless fishing, the modest 
guide volunteered to take me out that evening, if I cared to go. Of 
course I cared to go, and I shall never forget that moonlight night 
on Beaver Creek. We returned to camp about ten o'clock with 
twenty-eight trout, four of which weighed better^ 
than three pounds apiece. 

It may be a severe shock to the sensibili- 
ties of the "super-refined fly-caster" to 
suggest so mean a bait as grasshoppers, 
yet he may obtain some comfort, as did 
one aforetime, by labeling the can in which 
the hoppers are carried : 
■" •' CALOPTENOUS FEMUR-RUBRUM." 

****** 
Then there are Slough Creek, Hell-Roaring 
Creek, East Fork, Trout Lake, and a host of 
other streams and lakes that have been favorite resorts 
with anglers for vears, and in which may be taken the very leviathans of six, 
seven, eight, and even ten, pounds' weight. He must be difficult to please 




The 'Palisades 




A Vnuna dorsair of the Plains 



who finds not a day of days among them. T^p to the present time only the red-throat trout inhabit 
these waters, but plants of other varieties have been made and will doubtless thrive quite as well as the 
native trout. 

Owing probably to the fact that, until recently, the region around Tower Creek and Falls was not 
accessible bv roads, this stream received no attention from the fish commission till the summer of 1903, 
when a meager plant of 15,000 brook trout fry was made 
there. The scenery in this neighborhood is unsurpassed, and 
when the stream becomes well stocked it will, doubtless, be 
a favorite resort with anglers who delight in mountain fast- 
nesses or in the study of geological records of past ages. The 
drainage basin of Tower Creek coincides with the limits of the 
extinct crater of an ancient volcano. As you stand amid the 
dark forests with which the walls of the crater are clothed 
and see the evidences on all sides of the Titanic forces once 
at work here, fancy has but little effort in picturing some- 
thing of the tremendous scenes once enacted on this spot. 
Now all is peace and quiet, the quiet of the wilderness, which 
save for the rush of the torrential stream, is absolutely noise- 
less. No song of bird gladdens the darkened forests, and in 
its gloom the wild animals are seldom or never seen. How 
strikingly the silence and wonder of the scene proclaim that 
nature has formed the world for the happiness of man. 

Within two hundred yards of the Yellowstone River, ■. BH^^^^bnJ^&M^^^^^B^P' J^ 
Tower Creek passes over a fall of singular and romantic ^^^^^^^^^^_,^- 
beauty. Major Chittenden in his book "The Yellowstone" ^^^^^^^^^»<?E»2B^?v ah^# *" 




thus describes it: "This waterfall is the most beautiful in the 
Park, if one takes into consideration all its surroundings. The 
fall itself is very graceful in form. The deep cavernous basin in- 
to which it pours itself is lined with shapely evergreen trees, so 
that the fall is partially screened from view. Above it stand those 
peculiar forms of rock characteristic of that locality — detached 
pinnacles or towers which give rise to the name. The lapse of 
more than thirty years since Lieutenant Doane saw these falls, 
has given us nothing descriptive of them that can compare with 
the simple words of his report penned upon the first inspiration 
of a new discovery: 'Nothing can be more chastely beautiful than 
this lovely cascade, hidden away in the dim light of overshadow- 
ing rocks and woods, its very voice hushed to a low murmur 
unheard at the distance of a few hundred yards. Thousands 
might pass by within half a mile and not dream of its existence ; 
but once seen, it passes to the list of most pleasant memories.' " 

If the angler wanders farther into the wilderness than 
any waters named herein would lead him, he will find other 
streams to bear him company amid scenes that will live long in 
his memory and where the trout are ever ready to pay him the 
compliment of a rise. To the eastward flows Shoshone river with its 

myriad tributaries, teeming with trout and draining a region far more rugged and lofty 
Park proper. To the south and west are those wonderfully beautiful lakes that form the 
the Snake river. Here, early in the season, the great lake or Macinac trout, Salvelinus noma 
occasionally taken with a trolling spoon. 

S5 




The Shadow of a Cliff 



than the 
source of 
ycush, are 



From north to south, from the Absaroka Mountains to the Tctons, on both sides of the continental 
divide, this peerless pleasuring-ground is netted with a lace-work of streams. Two score lakes and 
more than one hundred, sixty streams are named on the map of this domain which is forever secured 
and safeguarded 

"FOR THE BENEFIT AND ENJOYMENT OF THE PEOPLE " 




Good Bye Till T^ext Year 
5b 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



JMH '11 ■< .^ 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



002 900 706 8 



